Bert & Ernie (Rosefernverse)
by flootzavut
Summary: A short three shot that follows after Operation Rosefern. Kate and Abby are reunited after many years. Mostly Kate and Abby, cameo from Gibbs, blink and you'll miss it appearance from Ziva. See my profile for reading order etc :)
1. 1: Abby

** _ ABBY _ **

Abby couldn't keep still. She suspected she was annoying Ziva enormously, but she couldn't help it. The unthinkable, unbelievable had happened, but until she actually saw Kate with her own eyes... Well, she couldn't quite bring herself to believe it, and that meant lots of nervous energy to the point where sitting down at all was a trial. Pacing had worked for a while, but it hadn't stopped the chattering in her brain, and she had gotten to the point where she was irritating herself.

She gnawed at a hangnail that she should have, would have dealt with straight away if she had been thinking straight. She didn't consciously register what she was doing until a hand on her arm stilled her.

"Abby. You will make it sore."

Abby looked down at her finger, at the redness already blossoming, and smiled slightly. Ziva's mother hen qualities emerged at the most unexpected moments, and after seven years her tenderness could still sometimes be surprising. "Sorry."

Ziva squeezed her arm gently. "You do not need to apologise to me, Abby." Her eyes seemed even bigger and darker than usual, and it struck Abby how peculiar this must also be for her as well. Kate had played such a big role in Ziva's life - her disappearance, her apparent death at Ari's hands, the ensuing vengeance, the space left in the team which Ziva had filled - and yet they'd never actually met.

"This is so weird, Ziva. Kate was my best friend. I thought she was dead, I went to her memorial, I just..." She shrugged. "I want her to be here _now_."

"A watched pan never boils, Abby."

"A watched pot."

Ziva chuckled. "That too. Maybe you should go back down to your lab. As soon as I hear anything, I will let you know."

Abby pressed her lips hard together but managed to squeeze out a smile - sort of. "'Kay."

"Go and play with Ernie."

"'Kay." Abby paused for a moment, then leaned in for a quick hug. "Thank you," she whispered.

"You are welcome."

They shared a smile, then Abby headed for the elevator.


	2. 2: Gibbs

** _ GIBBS _ **

"You're a good boy, aren't you Ernie? You're going to make such a great service dog, and I'm going to be so proud of you."

Gibbs rolled his eyes, shrugged, gestured for Kate to hold back for a second, then walked into the lab.

"Abs?"

Her music wasn't earsplittingly loud today, but she was so engrossed with the... was that thing really a dog? It was curly and eager and it was climbing all over Abby and licking her face.

"Abs!"

She swung towards him at the sound of his voice, stood up abruptly. "Gibbs. You're back."

He resisted the temptation to make a glib remark. "Uh-huh."

"Are you all...? You made it back...? Everyone...?"

"Yeah. All present and correct, Abby."

He thought that would reassure her but she looked terrified.

"This is Ernie." She gestured to the vaguely dog shaped creature at her feet.

"Ernie?"

"He's friends with Bert."

Gibbs nodded as if he understood.

"You know. Bert and Ernie?"

"... Okay." He had no idea.

"He's gonna be a service dog one day."

Momentarily taken aback, Gibbs allowed himself to be sidetracked for a second. "It _is_ a dog?"

"Gibbs! Of course he's a dog. He's a Labradoodle. He's really smart, and he doesn't shed fur so much, so he's good for people with allergies - and I'm being a volunteer puppy raiser again, the Director seems okay with it, and it's fun, so I thought-"

"Abs."

"I know Mortimer was kind of mischievous, but I have more experience now, and-"

"Abby!"

She stopped short.

"I got someone who wants to see you."

To his surprise, Abby went even paler than usual. "Gibbs, I-"

"What's wrong?"

She worried at her bottom lip with her teeth. "I'm scared, Gibbs," she admitted, in a small voice.

He glanced back over at the door. He had a strong suspicion Kate was feeling pretty spooked too; he could see her hovering and could almost feel the tension rolling off her. Once the initial strangeness was over, they would be fine, but... yeah, he could understand both of them finding this difficult. "It'll be fine, Abs." She looked up at him, eyes wide, and he stepped into her space to give her a hug. "It's fine. It's real. She's back."

He felt her nod, and then she took a deep breath and stood a little straighter. He put his hands on her shoulders for a moment, gave a little squeeze, then turned her around and pushed her a couple of steps towards the door.

"You comin' in, Kate?"

Kate peeked round the doorjamb, and Gibbs heard Abby's gasp. Kate slowly stepped inside, and just when Gibbs thought he might have to give Abby another shove, she suddenly ran to close the gap and wrapped Kate up in a bearhug.

"I missed you. I missed you so much," he heard Abby say, and then Kate replied something which was muffled in the embrace.

Gibbs watched them for a few moments, then looked down at the... dog. Apparently a dog. Crouching down, he tickled its ears, and was rewarded with a pleased noise that did sound fairly doggy. "Okay, what say we take a walk, Ernie, give these ladies some privacy?" The dog jumped on his knee and licked his face, then gave a definite 'woof'. Gibbs grabbed the lead from where it hung over one of the tables, clipped it on Ernie's collar, then paused for a moment. Abby was holding both Kate's hands in her own; there were tears on Kate's face, but they were both smiling. It looked a lot like it was going to be okay.

Tugging on the dog's lead, he walked briskly but quietly out of the lab and then turned back just for a moment to take one last look at the reunion. Yeah. They'd be okay.

He tugged again. "C'mon, boy. Walkies." Ernie didn't need asking twice.


	3. 3: Kate

_ **KATE** _

"I still can't..." Abby reached out to touch Kate's face, and shook her head. "I know you're real, you're there, but it's so weird and good and-" she smiled slightly "-I suppose I'm scared I'm going to wake up and find out this is a dream or something."

Kate laughed. "To be honest, part of me feels like that too. I had kind of- resigned myself, I guess, to Serbia being my home forever. By the time I was in a position to try and get out..." It was hard to explain, and she felt like she was making excuses, but Abby shushed her.

"It's okay, Kate. I underst-" Abby stopped herself mid word and shrugged. "Okay, so I don't really understand, but I'm trying, and the most important thing is that you're back. I can't even-" She shook her head again. "I feel like there's so much to say, so much to catch up on. I don't even know where to start."

"Abby Sciuto, lost for words. I didn't even know that was possible."

"I know, right? Like, so totally and completely ridiculous." She hugged Kate again, fiercely. Kate bit back an exclamation as the breath was squished out of her, and then Abby was grabbing her hand and leading her into the back office, where there were a couple of chairs.

Abby sat her down then perched on the desk next to her, her hands clasped around her knees, a large grey hippo stuffed toy on her lap, looking for all the world like an excited little girl. Kate couldn't help grinning. It was so Abby, and it took her back to girl talk here, or in one of their apartments, as if that had been yesterday, not seven years ago.

"So... wow." Abby leaned over again to poke Kate in the arm. "I- you know, when you first disappeared and we thought you were dead, I used to see you and have conversations with you. So I just have to keep reassuring myself that it isn't happening again, okay?"

"Okay." Kate felt another stab of guilt. "Abby, I'm so sorry-"

Abby shook her head firmly. "Ari's fault, not yours."

Kate shuddered at the name. It wasn't lost on her that this was the building where she'd encountered Ari Haswari for the first time. One thing she could never have predicted was how returning to NCIS would churn up all the memories she'd thought were carefully buried. Being back in DC was stressful in ways she had not expected, and things kept ambushing her. She shut her eyes and shook her head. She'd expected returning here to feel like coming home, and the fact that it felt anything but was horrible.

"Hug Bert."

Kate looked up, confused. Abby was holding out the stuffed hippo to her. Kate took it uncertainly. "Abby, why-?"

"Just trust me and hug him. I can tell you're freaking out, Kate. Bert'll help you feel better. He's good at that."

Kate shrugged and took the animal, inspected him, then gave him an experimental hug.

She was not prepared for the ripe farting noise, and burst out in surprised laughter.

Abby looked triumphant. "See?"

Kate squeezed again, and rolled her eyes. "Only you, Abs." She stroked the hippo on his head. He was large and soft and snuggly and though the sensible, adult, Special Agent part of her wanted to dismiss it as silly, he _was_ nice to hug.

Abby reached over to clasp her hand. "I know it's gonna sound silly. But when you were first- you know, gone - Bert... helped. He made me laugh." Her mouth wobbled, and Kate wondered if she was about to cry. She suddenly felt a bit teary eyed herself and squeezed Abby's hand. "God, Kate. It's really good to have you back and everything, but it's gonna take a while to get used to it."

"You and me both." Kate got up from the chair and instead hoisted herself up on the desk beside Abby. They sat with their arms round each other's shoulders, heads tilted together, and Bert across their laps. Eventually Abby took a deliberate if slightly shaky breath, and started to talk about what it was like to help train a service dog, her latest bowling exploits, the new equipment she'd gotten for the lab in the last few years. The sea of small talk, of normalcy, of chatter that required no response, was exactly what Kate needed, and she found herself relaxing again as she listened to the monologue.

She really had no idea how long they'd been sitting there when there was a tap at the half open door. She turned to find Gibbs looking at them as he leaned on the doorframe, the puppy Abby had been telling her about trying to squeeze past his ankles.

"Hey." His voice was uncharacteristically soft, and then he cleared his throat and sounded much more normal when he started again. "Kate, the director wants to see you. Abs, they need you in the evidence garage." It was a strange word to apply to Gibbs, but Kate almost thought he sounded apologetic.

They reluctantly got up and Abby gave Kate one last rib crunching hug before high tailing it out of the lab with her head lowered. Kate watched her go then turned to Gibbs. "It's gonna be like this for a while, isn't it?"

"'Fraid so," he agreed, holding the door open for her then following her out through the lab. He stopped to settle Ernie into the puppy crate in the corner of the room and then silently guided her out and into the elevator.

"Director wants to schedule your psych eval." He chuckled when Kate pulled a face.

"You had to tell me that _after_ the door closed?"

Gibbs laughed again. "You'll be fine."

The elevator sped up to the third floor and she gave herself a mental pep talk. There were going to be way too many meetings and reunions and probably other things she hadn't even thought of over the next few days, and she didn't feel ready for any of them.

They were nearly there when Gibbs reached out and flipped the emergency stop. _Should've expected that_, she thought to herself as she turned to face him.

His expression as he looked down at her was sympathetic. "Kate?"

"Yes?"

"Not every day someone comes back from the dead." He shrugged a shoulder and smiled a little. "Give us time. We'll get used to it."

She pursed her lips. _Easy for him to say_. "Promise?"

His eyes crinkled and he nodded. "Promise." He held her gaze till she nodded back, and then flicked the switch. Moments later they reemerged into the bullpen, mercifully quiet this time of day, and she took a deep breath.

Gibbs gave her a friendly nudge. "Go get 'em, Katie."

She gave him a halfhearted glare for the nickname, then straightened her back and headed resolutely for the stairs, walking swiftly to hide her nerves. When she reached the gallery she stopped and looked back down. "Gibbs?"

He was by his desk with a folder in his hands, and glanced up at her enquiringly.

"Thanks."

The grin he gave her was the one she associated with the very occasional times he had told her she'd done a good job, and with an extra bounce in her step, she turned back and marched towards the director's office.


End file.
